The apostle James applies this principle to the claims of manual laborers—­of those who hold the plough and thrust in the sickle.  He calls the rich lordlings who exacted sweat and withheld wages, to “weeping and howling,” assuring them that the complaints of the injured laborer had entered into the ear of the Lord of Hosts, and that, as a result of their oppression, their riches were corrupted, and their garments moth-eaten; their gold and silver were cankered; that the rest of them should be a witness against them, and should eat their flesh as it were fire; that, in one word, they had heaped treasure together for the last days, when “miseries were coming upon them,” the prospect of which might well drench them in tears and fill them with terror.  If these admonition and warnings were heeded there, would not “the South” break forth into “weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth?” What else are its rich men about, but withholding by a system of fraud, his wages from the laborer, who is wearing himself out under the impulse of fear, in cultivating their fields and producing their luxuries?  Encouragement and support do they derive from James, in maintaining the “peculiar institution” whence they derived their wealth, which they call patriarchal, and boast of as the “corner-stone” of the republic?

In the New Testament, we have, moreover, the general injunction, “Honor all men.”  Under this broad precept, every form of humanity may justly claim protection and respect.  The invasion of any human right must do dishonor to humanity, and be a transgression of this command.  How then, in the light of such obligations, must slavery be regarded?  Are those men honored, who are rudely excluded from a place in the human family, and shut up to the deep degradation and nameless horrors of chattelship? Can they be held as slaves, and at the same time be honored as men?

How far, in obeying this command, we are to go, we may infer from the admonitions and instructions which James applies to the arrangements and usages of religious assemblies.  Into these he can not allow “respect of persons” to enter.  “My brethren,” he exclaims, “have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.  For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel; and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool; are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.”  On this general principle, then, religious assemblies ought to be regulated—­that every man is to be estimated, not according to his circumstances—­not according to any thing incidental to his condition; but according to his moral worth—­according