Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1841-11-24

oUtISOu, III lAIo ufhSsCCutu century, among
American Christians, and especiauv
among Christian abolitionists, to discuss
gravely such question as this.
We are indeed fallen on strange times
it those who admit, nav, who earnestly
maintain, that slaveholding involves the
sins just described, should nevertheless
maintain that determined pro-slayery
church is Christian church, and that it
is disorderly and disorgaEizing to separate
ousre!ves from it. -..' g.. -.
ID. Ii slavery be essentially an anti
Christian institution, then it follows that
an inveterate pro-slayery church and min
istry are an anti-Christian church and
ministry; and if recognize such church
and ministry as Christian, then | reeog-
nize as a Christian church and ministry
what Jesus Christ does not thus recognize.
My testimony is at variance with his testi-
mony. And such a testimony have no
right to bear. 1t must be fundamentally
wrong and untrue.
! Is. To refuse the adoption of this test
is to refuse to separate between the pre-
cious and the viie,' TO "put difference
between the clean and the unclean," to
discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him that serveth the
Lord, and him that serveth him not"
l6. To refuse the adoption of this test
is to subvert the o-der of Christian church
es, snd to Illustrate the design of their in.
stitution. They were intended to embody
Christians, 10 distinction from worldlings;.
the servants of God, as contrasted with
the servants of sin +; the workers of right
eousness, to the exclusion of the workers
of iniqui:y. What can be more 'disor.
ganizing" and revolutionary" than to
break up this original design of Christian
churches? And what subversion and re-
volution can be more revolving and dis
astrous than that which transforms the
house of prayer into den Of thievea2
] II. To reject the use of this test in the
churches. is to reject the test by which
7 Christ has determined to Judge all men. at
the last day, the test of sound character
and discipeship, every where insisted
upon in the Scriptures. - ,-. ..
t.For was an hungered, and We gave
E me no meat was thirsty, and We gave
] me no drink. | was stranger, and We
f took me not in; naked and We clothed me
f not, sick and in prison and We visited me
not." 'Inasmuch as We
t did it not unto one of the least of these, We
. did it not unto me. And these shall go away
. into everlasting punishment. but the right
/ eous into life eternal. ''--Mattheao, chap.
XIV. 49, g . :, sss4szsassef
d Not actual oppressors merely; not their
: apologies exclusively; bat all who do,
: not actively succor the poor, the least, the
}, lowest, the most forlorn and degraded of
j. mankind; these will be rejected by the
/ Savior, who regards the neglect of the
n most wretched 10 be the neglect of him
: self! And who is more wretched than
r the slave? Who is hungry and athirst,
= who is a stranger, who is imprisoned, if
is not be2--How can we call ourselves
o Christians, and our churches, Christian
r. churches, and our ministers Christian
1t ministers if we refuse to honor the distinc-
At tive tests of the Christian religion, as SOL
e. EMMY and explicitly announced by its
divine Founder?
is "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
TT obtain mercy" 600 We, and learn what
is this me7neth, will have mercy and not
es sacrifice "Ifa man love not his broth
I'd err whom he hath seen, how can be
he love God whom he hath not SEEM
~ "The righteous considereth the cause of
| the poor, but the wicked reyardeth not to
IT, know it,"
NJ " hat shall we say Of our churches, il
it they can not endure the scrutiny of such
le. tests as these Nay, hat shall we say, il
ce the proposal to introduce into them such
10 tests, is regarded as Revolutionary and
to disorganizIng"?
of Then look at the solemn declarations oil
If! the prophets on this same subject of op
cd preston. Read the first and the fifty
eighth chapter of Isaiah. Compare them
he with the fitch Psalm, and see how Coo
ter loathes and abominates all religious ser
or vices and worship that are not coupled
ess with the relief of the oppressed, the reproo
to of his wrongs, the advocaeysof his caese
err. But1ime would fail to cite all the passage
tu- of Scripture which are explicit on thi
point. To present them would be 10 trans
ler cribe a large portion of the sacre
se, volume -
er- 18. The great law of love, The golde
ef- rule, the, principle of equity or equality
ris the doctrine of disin:erested beneyolenc'
so (by whatever name or phraseoogy th
TIL one grand feature of Bible religion ma
or be expressed binds the churches to tb
ltal practical adoption Of the proposed test, M
ing less we admit the too current idea that fir
zen principles are to be honored only "in th
ABSTRACT What child does not know th;
der every church member in the land wouI
rfv plead the cause of the enslayed, if be love
NJ: them as himself? And what greater di
the honor can Christianity suffer than that I
be being represented by church organization
and that receive and honor as Christians thos