The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-06-22

2
and from the world .G fe 19aat ~
, But it was often asked, and by good men, wha
good will the action of this body do Our South
ern brethren have made up their minds that slave
ry is Bible institution, and we think differently
what good will it do to make declaration of GU
opinions 10 illustrate the reasonableness O
such a question he supposed case that one G
our Presbyteries should have made up their mind
that marriage was not divine institution o
moral obligation, and held to the propriety of pro
miscuous concubinage: ought not the Assembly
to express its opinion of such a course of conduc
and sentiment? Would it do for the members o
that Presbytery to saw we have made up ou
minds on the question; we consider our view az
the Scriptural view, and we don't wish the matter
debated; five go with you it is on this principle
Ought the assembly to yield to such an argument
and to remain silent? Orsuppose another Pres
bytery held the drinking of ardent spirit 10 be q
Christian virtue-that inemperance was virtue
and in consequence some ofthe ministers and ell
ders became drunkards; and another held the COM
munity of goods in such a sense as to appropriate
whatever they could lay their hands upon; and
when the case was brought up, was the Assem-
bly, to be told that it must pass no resolution ex.
press no opinion, make no recommendation
Could the Assembly stand still under the weight
even of one such Presbytery? Nay, would not a
single church of such character ruin any body
with which it was allowed to hold good standing ?
And was it not now continually thrown in the face
of himself and his companions, "Ah, you are in
fellowship with church that holds that the buy
ing and selling of hnn.an beings is no SIM that
it is right to live on unreqited labor" Questions
ofmorals had nothing to do with acres and miles
on these questions the church, though spread all
over the land, was one vast integrality. And
what now the character of the Presby-
tartan church it was, as to moral questions, a
plant body In save-holding region it was a
slaveholding church., In a temperance region it
went for temperance it graduated its opinion by
degrees oflatitude and longitude. Christs
kingdom must be pe-bald and specked, one thing
in one place, and another in another. ~
But to return to the point from which he had
been about TO start when intemupted-The con-
dition of this body had been likened by the glow
ing and fruitful imagination of brother to that of
ship on her beam ends, and on the point of found
ering-the heavens covered with black and low
ering clouds-the winds Notwithstanding CULTS
opening all around, and the crew with the pros
pect of immediate death before their eyes and
the idea of discussing the question of slavery at
this time, had been compared to the assembling of
the crew, under such circumstances, to settle some
nice and difficult nautical question, touching the
stars, or respecting some new chronometer for the
inventionaof which the learned Swans and astron-
omers at Paris had offered premium of 100000
francs DR.. Cox here observed with smile that
the brothers Imagination had wonderfully helped
his But Mr.. Stewart thought it might rather
be compared to calling the crew to consider how
the ship might be ghtened? what was her cargo =?
and if it was found that her loading consisted of
lead and mllstones, whether it would not be best to
throw the lead overheard or some of the millSones?
If it was hoped to save this Presbyterian church
from ruin, slavery must be thrown overheard.
Throw it over as an distractions; throw it over
as fact; throw it over in every form and shape
it could assume. He would beg and entreat with
tears, and conjure with mighty applications, all
slave-holdmg Christians to give up this sin against
which their fathers testified in 1918. At that
time, the South had only asked time and space to
wind up the system and bring it peaceablv to an
end and the church had said go, and do it with
all convenient speed. The whole church had ut
tered one unanimous Amen. The North and the
mind. So he and his brethren had learned Christ,
and so they now wished to do.
And now he wanted to say word as to the rea-
son that the church had been divided, and this
portion was assembled where he now found it.
He had evidence as to the true reason. DR.. Bax-
ter in 1887 wrote letter in which he declared
that of the great causes of the act of the ex-
csion was desire to get rid of body of men
who abhorred slavery and held it to be sin and
he though it had effected much for the South
So when DR.. Spring who had lately been preach
ing in his own pulp ito acrowded auditory against
abolition and abolitonists, when present in Wash
ington City at meeting of the Colonization Soci-
ETY., had told that society and the meeting assem-
bled, in substance that the excelsior had been eff
fected in order to prevent the church from being
submerged in the anti-slavery influence. And
now what has the church done since 1918 towards
removing this sin What had these 10 years
produced ?-the discovery that slavery was nc
sin at all: that it was bible institution as much
as the relation between man and wife and that
it was to abide toreUer! Like sinners who pu-
off their repentance to some future day, and after
a long time find out that they have nothing to re.
pent Of, so the church had found that in the mat.
ter Of slavery she has nothing to repent of, save
now and then the starving or whipping of a slave
or two to death. But what had slavery done fol
this body? AS the church had refused to turr
slavery out, slavery (admitting this body to be the
true Presbyterian church) had turned the church
out of doors; at least out of that place where il
sat previous to 1927. Slavery had evcted il
from its seat. But there was place where the