1.  That we have here a test of universal application. The rectitude and benevolence of our Savior’s character forbid us to suppose that he would subject this inquirer, especially as he was highly amiable, to a trial, where eternal life was at stake, peculiarly severe.  Indeed, the test seems to have been only a fair exposition of the second great command, and of course it must be applicable to all who are placed under the obligations of that precept.  Those who can not stand this test, as their character is radically imperfect and unsound, must, with the inquirer to whom our Lord applied it, be pronounced unfit for the kingdom of heaven.

2.  The least that our Savior can in that passage be understood to demand is, that we disinterestedly and heartily devote ourselves to the welfare of mankind, “the poor” especially.  We are to put ourselves on a level with them, as we must do “in selling that we have” for their benefit—­in other words, in employing our powers and resources to elevate their character, condition, and prospects.  This our Savior did; and if we refuse to enter into sympathy and cooperation with him, how can we be his followers?  Apply this test to the slaveholder.  Instead of “selling that he hath” for the benefit of the poor, he BUYS THE POOR, and exacts their sweat with stripes, to enable him to “clothe himself in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day;” or, HE SELLS THE POOR to support the gospel and convert the heathen!

What, in describing the scenes of the final judgment, does our Savior teach us? By what standard must our character be estimated, and the retributions of eternity be awarded?  A standard, which both the righteous and the wicked will be surprised to see erected.  From the “offscouring of all things,” the meanest specimen of humanity will be selected—­a “stranger” in the hands of the oppressor, naked, hungry, sickly; and this stranger, placed in the midst of the assembled universe, by the side of the sovereign Judge, will be openly acknowledged as his representative.  “Glory, honor, and immortality,” will be the reward of those who had recognized and cheered their Lord through his outraged poor.  And tribulation, anguish, and despair, will seize on “every soul of man,” who had neglected or despised them.  But whom, within the limits of our country, are we to regard especially as the representatives of our final Judge?  Every feature of the Savior’s picture finds its appropriate original in our enslaved countrymen.

1.  They are the LEAST of his brethren.

2.  They are subject to thirst and hunger, unable to command a cup of water or a crumb of bread.

3.  They are exposed to wasting sickness, without the ability to procure a nurse or employ a physician.

4.  They are emphatically “in prison,” restrained by chains, goaded with whips, tasked, and under keepers.  Not a wretch groans in any cell of the prisons of our country, who is exposed to a confinement so rigorous and heart-breaking as the law allows theirs to be continually and permanently.