38.2-CHAPTER XXXVIII The Victory part2-mt

CHAPTER XXXVIII

The Victory part2

Those who have beenfamiliar with the religious histories of the slave population know thatrelations like what we have narrated are very common among them. We have heardsome from their own lips, of a very touching and affecting character. Thepsychologist tells us of a state, in which the affections and images of themind become so dominant and overpowering, that they press into their servicethe outward imagining. Who shall measure what an all-pervading Spirit may dowith these capabilities of our mortality, or the ways in which He may encouragethe desponding souls of the desolate? If the poor forgotten slave believes thatJesus hath appeared and spoken to him, who shall contradict him? Did He not saythat his mission, in all ages, was to bind up the broken-hearted, and set atliberty them that are bruised?

When the dim grayof dawn woke the slumberers to go forth to the field, there was among thosetattered and shivering wretches one who walked with an exultant tread; forfirmer than the ground he trod on was his strong faith in Almighty, eternallove. Ah, Legree, try all your forces now! Utmost agony, woe, degradation,want, and loss of all things, shall only hasten on the process by which heshall be made a king and a priest unto God!

From this time, aninviolable sphere of peace encompassed the lowly heart of the oppressed one,—an ever-presentSaviour hallowed it as a temple. Past now the bleeding of earthly regrets; pastits fluctuations of hope, and fear, and desire; the human will, bent, andbleeding, and struggling long, was now entirely merged in the Divine. So shortnow seemed the remaining voyage of life,—so near, sovivid, seemed eternal blessedness,—that life'suttermost woes fell from him unharming.

All noticed thechange in his appearance. Cheerfulness and alertness seemed to return to him,and a quietness which no insult or injury could ruffle seemed to possess him.

"What thedevil's got into Tom?" Legree said to Sambo. "A while ago he was alldown in the mouth, and now he's peart as a cricket."

"Dunno, Mas'r;gwine to run off, mebbe."

"Like to seehim try that," said Legree, with a savage grin, "wouldn't we,Sambo?"

"Guess wewould! Haw! haw! ho!" said the sooty gnome, laughing obsequiously."Lord, de fun! To see him stickin' in de mud,—chasin' and tarin'through de bushes, dogs a holdin' on to him! Lord, I laughed fit to split, datar time we cotched Molly. I thought they'd a had her all stripped up afore Icould get 'em off. She car's de marks o' dat ar spree yet."

"I reckon shewill, to her grave," said Legree. "But now, Sambo, you look sharp. Ifthe nigger's got anything of this sort going, trip him up."

"Mas'r, let melone for dat," said Sambo, "I'll tree de coon. Ho, ho, ho!"

This was spoken asLegree was getting on his horse, to go to the neighboring town. That night, ashe was returning, he thought he would turn his horse and ride round thequarters, and see if all was safe.

It was a superbmoonlight night, and the shadows of the graceful China trees lay minutelypencilled on the turf below, and there was that transparent stillness in theair which it seems almost unholy to disturb. Legree was a little distance fromthe quarters, when he heard the voice of some one singing. It was not a usualsound there, and he paused to listen. A musical tenor voice sang,

"When I canread my title clear
To mansions in the skies,
I'll bid farewell to every fear,
And wipe my weeping eyes

"Should earth against my soul engage,
And hellish darts be hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan's rage,
And face a frowning world.

"Let cares like a wild deluge come,
And storms of sorrow fall,
May I but safely reach my home,
My God, my Heaven, my All."*

* "On MyJourney Home," hymn by Isaac Watts, found in many
of the southern country songbooks of the ante bellum period.

"So ho!"said Legree to himself, "he thinks so, does he? How I hate these cursedMethodist hymns! Here, you nigger," said he, coming suddenly out upon Tom,and raising his riding-whip, "how dare you be gettin' up this yer row, whenyou ought to be in bed? Shut yer old black gash, and get along in withyou!"

"Yes,Mas'r," said Tom, with ready cheerfulness, as he rose to go in.

Legree was provokedbeyond measure by Tom's evident happiness; and riding up to him, belabored himover his head and shoulders.

"There, youdog," he said, "see if you'll feel so comfortable, after that!"

But the blows fellnow only on the outer man, and not, as before, on the heart. Tom stoodperfectly submissive; and yet Legree could not hide from himself that his powerover his bond thrall was somehow gone. And, as Tom disappeared in his cabin,and he wheeled his horse suddenly round, there passed through his mind one ofthose vivid flashes that often send the lightning of conscience across the darkand wicked soul. He understood full well that it was GOD who was standingbetween him and his victim, and he blasphemed him. That submissive and silentman, whom taunts, nor threats, nor stripes, nor cruelties, could disturb,roused a voice within him, such as of old his Master roused in the demoniacsoul, saying, "What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?—art thou come totorment us before the time?"

Tom's whole souloverflowed with compassion and sympathy for the poor wretches by whom he wassurrounded. To him it seemed as if his life-sorrows were now over, and as if,out of that strange treasury of peace and joy, with which he had been endowedfrom above, he longed to pour out something for the relief of their woes. It istrue, opportunities were scanty; but, on the way to the fields, and back again,and during the hours of labor, chances fell in his way of extending ahelping-hand to the weary, the disheartened and discouraged. The poor,worn-down, brutalized creatures, at first, could scarce comprehend this; but,when it was continued week after week, and month after month, it began toawaken long-silent chords in their benumbed hearts. Gradually and imperceptiblythe strange, silent, patient man, who was ready to bear every one's burden, andsought help from none,—whostood aside for all, and came last, and took least, yet was foremost to sharehis little all with any who needed,—the man who, incold nights, would give up his tattered blanket to add to the comfort of somewoman who shivered with sickness, and who filled the baskets of the weaker onesin the field, at the terrible risk of coming short in his own measure,—and who, though pursued with unrelenting cruelty by their commontyrant, never joined in uttering a word of reviling or cursing,—this man, at last, began to have a strange power over them; and,when the more pressing season was past, and they were allowed again theirSundays for their own use, many would gather together to hear from him ofJesus. They would gladly have met to hear, and pray, and sing, in some place,together; but Legree would not permit it, and more than once broke up suchattempts, with oaths and brutal execrations,—so thatthe blessed news had to circulate from individual to individual. Yet who canspeak the simple joy with which some of those poor outcasts, to whom life was ajoyless journey to a dark unknown, heard of a compassionate Redeemer and aheavenly home? It is the statement of missionaries, that, of all races of theearth, none have received the Gospel with such eager docility as the African.The principle of reliance and unquestioning faith, which is its foundation, ismore a native element in this race than any other; and it has often been foundamong them, that a stray seed of truth, borne on some breeze of accident intohearts the most ignorant, has sprung up into fruit, whose abundance has shamedthat of higher and more skilful culture.