Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-01-05 00:00:00

Thursday, January 5, Y S6O

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character of the opposition to' change and iii-
pravement in our daughter country. If we -Wait
to see the power of sophistry, the arts of per-
, ,erted religionism, the false and -forced-attempts
to gather support from the most sacred authori-
ties, we need only turn to the speeches of some
men, of the North, at the recent . New York
meeting, where was announced that strange, dis-
' interested(!) 'advocacy of the Constitution so far
as the •rights of the slave-owner were involved..
The party-shape which religion is made
Ito take in America as here, and the party objects.
which it is made to serve; impose upon the advo-
cates of slavery the necessity of some attempts
atScriptural argument. , Their appeals to Scrip-
ture:are however negative, and therefore on the
face of them Unsatisfactory. The great defect of"
this negative appeal is what vitiates nearly all
positive social arguments drawn from the silence
of Scripture; it displays an' ignorance of the
scope and method of Christianity; and also of
the function meant to be discharged by those •
documents which record its establishment and
early progress. We are told the New Testament
contains no prohibition of slavery, though the -
founder of Christianity and the writers of the -
Book must have lived in the midst of it, and
possibly have been themselves served by slaves. -
The last is a gratuitous supposition, which how-
'ever does not affect the reply to such a loose and
at best probable argument. It is almost unneces-
sary to repeat what that reply is, except 'to notice-
a very startling decline in the religious appre- -
hension of the age. Christianity having to deal
with humanity as it found it, could not eliminate
at once all human conditions in its manner of."
treatment. Like other systems, even this Divine
method of restoration needed time to look about;„
to• collect and direct its energies, and proceed by
gradual steps to take up into itself the whole family
of mankind. It began its work on the conscience of
the individual. It came to form a new religious
status for men one by one, and enrol them in a-
new family, the conditions of. enrolment being
quite independent of mere, temporal and social
accidents. Its work was to -release the slave-
from a spiritual bondage which he suffered along-
with those whom society • deemed "free." It '
recognised no distinction between " bond and_'
free," but aimed to impose upon both a character-
I istic quite independent of previous social circum--
stances. It made, in short; of -slaves Christians,-
but refrained from exciting a revolution against
their heathen masters. But what bearing can..
this be supposed to have upon theconduct which-
the Gospel expects from a Christian community P It-,
is evident that it must be to a source quite different
from the historical department of • Scripture, that.
.4 ~
we must look for practical guidance in the social
life and relations of Christians. The social ethics -
of Christianity must be learnt from the general
tenor of its, precepts and its principles ; and not
from its neglect to fix the proper temporal rela-
tions among a community of
.heathen masters—
The whole argument is but an illustration of that
ungodly spirit of the day, which in our own:
Country has already produced the Divorce Bill,--
and now wishes to sanction marriage with a de- -
ceased wife's sister. When nations, no less than
individuals, adopt as their rule the utmost license-
which they think may be just- barely consistent
with a Christian profession, they have begun a
course which will in no long time lead them first
to vice recognised and defended, and at last to-
infidelity as 4 refuge from conscience and shame. •I