The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-15 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.

deny that there could be any sinless holder of a slave
according to the law of God. That was a rock upos
which they must not split—they must It give the slave.
holder any such loop-hole, for they wou!d most gladly
avail themselves of it ; no one found such easy eacusos
for his conduct as the slaveholder, -Whether he were a
cruel one or a mild and gentle master.—(Hear, Lear.)
He had made himself acquainted with the facts as
they stood in New York respecting slavery—he wet,t
to all Churches, and in none but the Roman Cathoii*
Church did he find they had put down the negro pew.
Even in the Churches where Ministers preached %who
called themselves Abolitionists he found it.---(Hear,
hear.) The res-olution did not dictate, they only
called upon the Churches to carry out their •irn prin-
ciples—they did not dictate new modes of ac'ion.
The Rev. Mr. SWAN, of Birmingham, supported the
resolution.

The Rcv. Mr. RoatusoN. of Kettering, would like
to see the Committee appointed unfl.cered, when they
would well consider the matter, and bring forward ma-
tured resolutions.

Rev, Mr. HARVEY, of Glas,ow, supported the reso-
lution. Although as strict a Presbyterian as he ought
to be, he saw nothing in them t 9 offend any Church—
they were recommendations, not dictations.
Rev. Mr. JAMES, of Bridgewater, supported the
amendment. Ile thought strong and stringent rase•
lutions might be framed to effect their object without
at all meddling with Church discipline.
Mr. D. CREWDSON supported the resolution.

The SECRETARY Said as they were now about t
come to a vote, he trusted it would be understood that
it would decide the principle of the resolution, and when
the Committee brought up their Report, there wpnld
be no discussion upon the principle of the resolution,
but would be coifir“,l to the details.
The Rev. Mr. BINNEY did not understand what
was meant by the principle. His own impression was
that if they (:eclared a certain thing to be a great six
and a violation of Christian duty, they could not avoid
drawing the inference that those who were guilty of
that sin might he subject to Church discipline.—(Hear.)
Such a conclusion was as clear and logical as possible.
But the difficulty of the point was not in the resolutions
themselves of Mr. Steven but in the preamble to those
resolutions. That preamble did not refer to the charac-
teristics which distinguished the slavery of the present
day, from that species of slavery which existed at the
time of the primitive Church. Was there any gentle-
man present who would deny that slave-owners had
been members of that primitive Chureh,?—(Yes.)
' Could any one deny that under the eyes of the Apo:Ns,
men had held property in their fellow-men ? Ha
believed there were slaves and maiters in the times of
the Apostles, and that those masters had not become
subject to Church discipline. He believed that the
arguments of the Apostles had principally for their ob-
ject the gentle and gradual insinuation of the doctrines
of Christianity. He had, however, no objection
to such a resolution as that which had been pro-
posed, if they were to have a preamble to it clearly
and distinctly stating the characteristics which dis-
tinguished modern slavery from that which existed when
the primitive Church was formed. He thought that if
instead of this course they denounced slavery in general
terms as unchristian, they would create much perplexity

in many minds.
A DELEGATE said that there was no account in the
Scriptures of such slavery as we had now.
Tne Rev. Mr. BlNNEY—Exactly. There were cir-
cumstances of peculiar atrocity in slavery as it existed
now, and it assumed a totally different aspect from that
which it bore at the time of the Apostles. But if they
used the word slavery generally, he thought they would
involve themselves in great difficulties.
Mr. \V t. llawEs, of the Oberlin Institution, called
on the meeting to act cautiously as regarded the question
then before them, hut not to temporize. They ceuld
not denounce the unchristian character of slavery, too
strongly, and they were hound to take every means in
their power for its suppression.
The Rev. J. W. JAMES began by expressing a hope
that the Convention would not come to a decision oa
the question then before them without the fullest deli-
beration. They were then touching the mainsprirg of
the whole subject.—(Hear, hear, hear.) Their ob-
ject was the extinction of the slave trade, and in
order to effect that object they should put an end
to slavery in America ; and in order to put down
slavery in America they should remove it from the
Church of America—(Hear, hoar)—and in order to
remove it from the Church of America it appeared to
him that the strongest recommendations on the sub-
ject should go forth from the Convention. 'rho
Church was the main prop of slavery in the United
States.—(Hear, hear.) The demon of slavery had
found a haunt, a shelter, and a defence, not so much,
he believed, under the Presidential or the Professorial
Chair, as under the altar of the Lord and in the house
of God. It was, therefore, their duty to do something
which would tell on the Church.—( Hear, hear.) The
question was a moral one, and they all knew that the
Church of God professed to be based on moral grounds-,
aid that a moral influence perpetually proceeded from
it either for evil or for good. It appeared to him there-
fore that they should do something which would act on
the professors of religion, and he did not know any-
thing more likely to effect that end than a temperate
but firm and uncompromising recommendation, such as
that alluded to in the resolution then under the con-
sideration of the meeting. He belonged himself to a
denomination proverbially sensitive as to its rights as a
Church—a denomination which would allow no inva-
sion of those rights, and which would set at defiance
that Convention, or any other body which might at-
tempt to dictate to its members the terms of com-
munion : but they were prepared to listen to recom-
mendations, and especially to recommendations emana-
ting from such a body as that which he then addressed.
He would still say that the suggestion of Mr. Binney
deserved the grave and serious consideration of the
Committee when it came before them. The slave.
holders sheltered themselves under the pretended sanc-
tion of the Scriptures, and would tell them that there
were slave-holders in communion with the psimitive
Church. He would meet them on that ground, by
showing that modern slavery bore no ana4ogy to that
which prevailed then ; and besides there was not the
same light to reveal its enormity as now. He thought
that it would be wise to take up that suggestion.
Their object should be to produce an impression on
the public mind, and to convince parties that slavary, as
it existed at the present day, was a sin, and such a sin
as oueht to exclude its authors from communion with
their fellow-men.—( Hear, hear.)
Mr. G. TitosiesoN was anxious to notice the fact to
which the Rev. Mr. Binney had alluded—that there
had been slave-holders among the primitive Christians.
and in the time of the Apostles ; and to allude to the
statement of another gentleman, that specific directions
had been given by St. Paul to slaves to obey the pre-
cepts of their masters. He did not think that either of
these observations should be permitted to escape not;ce
in a meeting like that before hire, lest any individual
who had not given the lame consideration to the sub-
ject as others among them had been obliged to do,
should depart without that information which 'night
enable him to come to a satisfactory conclusion on that
very difficult and oftsdebated point. He granted
that there had been slave-holders among the pro-
fessors of Christianity in the time of the Apostles—
he admitted also with the aev. Mr. James that the
characteristics of slavery at the 'time of tile Apostles
differed in many important points from the character-
istics of that slavery which they were now denouncing ;
but it appeared. to him that there were other circum-
stances of equal or even greater importance to be taken
into account. The first of these was that if St. Pan!
had not denounced slavery specifically, and if he had
not authoritatively enjoined en masters the liberation of
their slaves, he was silent on that subject, as he had
been silent on many others, respecting which there had
never been any doubt from the time that Christianity
had been first propagated in the world, St. Paul was
not sent to be an anti-slavery lecturer ; h, had been
sta which,ihpl
oep should
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ic
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other doctrines. Sir Isaac Newton, when he developed
to the world his system of astronomy, did not at the
same time refute in detail every other system which
the ignorance or the superstition or the vanity of
men had formed, but he laid down great principles drawn
from an accurate observation of the laws of nature, bf
which he overturned every system which previous phi-
losophers had established. He (Mr. Thompson) was
still prepared to teach with St. Paul, that slaves should
not effect their liberation by violence, or by the appliea-
tion of physical force ; and ha did not know an altroli-
tionist with whom he was acquainted who would not be
ready to tell slaves, in the language of the Apeatle, that
being slaves, they should not
care for it, for that they
had a master in ' heaven who had smitten from their limbs
the fetters of a baser bondage, but that if they could
purchase their freedom they might do so. He thought
that the lessons of St. Paul to slaves offered a striking
illustration of the peaceful spirit of Christianity, But
on the other hand, did the Apostle give no instructions
to masters? Mr. Thompson was proceeding when

The Venerable Chairman left the meeting, apparently
overcome by fatigue.
Mr. J. STURGE then took the chair, and

Mr. THOMPSON then continued. He bad said
that the Apostle Paul had addressed precepts to
slaves providing for the safety of their masher: and
their property, but he had also addressed precepts to
masters. And here he (Mr. Thompson) would take
the opportunity of complaining of the modern practice
of appealing to the Set iptures in America. He knew
tint there were hundreds of preachers in tt,e S3utb
who were exuedingly fond of searching the writings
of St. Rtul whenever he might refer to the defies of
slaves, but who seemed to Imo completely forgotten
the other precepts of the Apostle. Wbst did St.