3

[fol. iii.]

2

it, of the Passover is peculiarly grateful. It suggests to him a
comparison between the fate of his people & of the earth. As winter
bound the earth with chains of frost, restrained all her powers &
bared her of all her beauty; so Egypt imposed upon Israel, the
bonds of slavery, curbed his energies, & deprives him of all
the loveliness of Patriarchal faith. ) To the Israelite, then,
the season of Passover has more than ordinary interest.
Ires Irrespective of sharing the universal gratitude, he is impressed
with sentiments all his own. Amidst the song of praise that
rises to Heaven from the millions of the Earth, his voice is heard
hymning mercy exercised on his behalf only. Among the
myraids of human beings who, through countless ages, have
trodden the road to eternity, he finds himself alone singled out
as the object of a declared special Providence. And in what a
Cause! Not for the individual merits of the suffering laborers
in hard bondage, not for the infliction of vengeance on the
tyrannic oppressors; For it meant for him but for the vindication of the sacred
rights of conscience, for the maintenance of the inalienable
principle of religious liberty. Since the slavery of Eg. man
has invented a thousand ways for violating religious
rights: