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| Abolition of Slavery Act | by Pastor Michael Bostock, Occold Baptist Church |
| Last month was the 200th anniversary of the passing of the Abolition of Slavery Act on 25th March 1807. Most of us have probably seen, read, or heard something about the inhumanity of the Slave Trade that began, as far as this country is concerned, in 1562 Although March was a focus month, the remainder of this year will be a ‘Year of Freedom’, with charitable organisations and web sites continuing to keep public attention on this regrettably continuing evil. The estimates vary but there are millions of people still enslaved; denied their humanity and dignity as allowed them by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery. Physical and cultural slavery is deplorable. Yet it is a living parable that touches all our lives: it is a picture of our spiritual slavery. Goethe said, “None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.” Or, to change the metaphor, there are none so blind as those who will not see. The fact of the matter is that we are all born spiritually enslaved by sin – the wrongdoing against God’s laws, against man, and even against ourselves – but we do not see it until it is pointed out to us. | This slavery has far more serious consequences than that of any enslaved fellow human today. Easter has just gone and we remembered why Jesus came to this earth to die on the cross of Calvary: it was to set us free from our sin. He said, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”[John chap. 8v36 (NKJV)]. In this, he shows Albert Einstein to be completely wrong: “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence, and leading the individual towards freedom.” |