UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

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KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
name, with all the vehemence of childishthe New EnglandStates, at the time when
grief.She was carriedin a coffle, and sold slaverywas prevalent, was one woman,
as cook on a Southern plantation. With who,immediately on
the utmost earnestness of languageshe has of the love of Jesus Christ,exclaimed, "He
describedto the writer her utter loneliness, isthe one; thisis what I wanted."
and the distressand despairof her heart,in This languagecausingsurprise, her history
this situation, partedforever from all she was inquired into. It was briefly this :
held dear on earth,without even the possibility
While livingin her simp^ hut in Africa,
of writing lettersor sendingmessages, the kidnappers one day rushed upon her
surrounded by those who felt no kind of family, and carried her husband and children
interestin her,and forcedto a toilfor which off to the slave-ship, she escaping into
her more delicate education had entirely the woods. On returning to her desolate
unfitted her. Under these circumstances, home,she mourned with the bitternessof
she beganto believe that it was for some "Rachel weepingfor her children." For
dreadful sin she had thus been afflicted. many daysher heart was oppressed with a
heavyweight of sorrow; and,refusing all
sustenance,she wandered up and down the
"After that,I beganto feelawful wicked, desolateforest.
so wicked, you 've no idea! I felt so At lastșhe says,
a strongimpulse came
wicked that my sins seemed likea load on over her to kneel down and pour out her
sorrows into the ear of some unknown Being
whom she fanciedto be above her, in the sky.
pray in the house,and I used to go way off She did so; and,to her surprise, found
in the lotand pray. At last, one day,when an inexpressible sensation of relief. After
I was praying, the Lord he came and spokethis, it was her custom dailyto go out to
this same spot, and supplicate thisunknown
Friend. Subsequently, she was herself
taken,and broughtover to America;and,
With a face of the utmost earnestness, when the storyof Jesus and his love was
relatedto her,she immediately feltin her
soul thatthisJesus was the very friendwho
and I never, tillthe last day of my life, had spokencomfort to her
shallforgetwhat he said to me."
in the distantforestof Africa.
"What was it?" said the writer. Comparenow these experiences with the
"
He said, ' Fear not,my littleone ; thy earnest and beautiful languageof Paul :
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sins are forgiven thee ; and she added to He hath made of one blood allnations of
this some verses, which the writer recognized
men, for to dwell on all the face of the
as those of a Methodist hymn. earth ; and hath determined the times before
Beingcurious to examine more closely appointedand the bounds of their
thisphenomenonțhe author said, habitation, that they should seek the
"You mean that you dreamed this, Lord,if haply theymight PEEL AFTEE
Louisa."
Him and find Him,thoughhe be not far
With an airof wounded feeling, and much from every one of us."
earnestness, she answered,
Is not this truly " feelingafter God
"0 no, Mrs. Stowe;that never was a and finding Him''''? And may we not
dream;you'llnever make me believethat." hopethat the yearning, troubled,
The thought at once arose in the writer'sheart of man, pressedby the insufferable
mind,If the Lord Jesus i3 indeed everywhere
anguishof thisshortlife,
wearied by its
present, and ifhe is as tender-heartedutter
vanity,
and compassionate
he was on earth, pleadinghand to God in vain ? Is not the
and we know he "
is, must he not sometimes
veilwhich divides us from an almighty and
longto speakto the poor, desolatemost
mercifulFather much thinnerthan we,
slave, when he knows that no voicebut His in the pride of our philosophy, are apt to
can carry comfort and healing to his soul? imagine ? and isitnot the most worthy conception
This instance of Louisa is so exactlyparallel
of Him to suppose that the more
to another case, which the author utterlyhelplessand ignoran the human
reco ved from an authentic source, that she being is that seeks His aid țhe more tender
istemptedto placethe two sideby side. and the more condescending will be His
Among the slaveswho were brought into communication with that soul ?
The course of her mind after this may be
best told in her own simplewords :
me, and I went so heavyall the day ! I
felt so wicked that I didn't feelworthyto
to me."
"The Lord spoketo you?" said the
writer ; "what do you mean, Louisa? "
she answered,"Why, ma'am, the Lord
Jesus he came and spoketo me, you know ;
being told the history
yearningspirit
helpless
never extends its ignorant,