The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1843-09-14
RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY.
THE POSITION OF THE M. e. CHURCH

THE POSITION OF THE M. e. CHURCH.
While so much is said in some sect
ions about purifying the nj. E Church
from slavery at the next General Con-
ference, it may be we'll to look at her
position, as defined by her great official
organ. The Christian Advocate and
Journal, published in New York, is an
official paper, and has double, perhaps
five or ten times wider circulation than
any other paper in the connection. What
then says the great official organ Of the
position of the M. e. Church,
In late number, in reply to Mr.. Boyd,
the Advocate denies that the M. E.
Church has any rule prohibiting the buy
ing and selling human beings as sLaoes
The rule which forbids the buying and
selling ofmen, women and children, WITH
AN INTENTION TO ENsLAvE THEM he
says, does not, and was never intended
to prohibit the traffic in slaves, but only
to prohibit buying FREE persons, with a
view to make slaves of them. The Ed
itor supposes it to be in the highest de-
gree absurd, to talk of enslavng those
who are already enslaved. We have al
ways supposed the design ofthe rule was
to prohibit buying slaves with an inten-
ton to hold them as such, leaving it law
full to buy them NTH an intention 10 set
them free. We may have been mistaken,
and the advocate may be right. The
letter certainly favors his construction.
But whether he be right or wrong, as to
the original intention of the rule, such
is the influence of that paper, that its
constructions and expositions will prevail
with the vast majority of the church.
1t may be considered as settled that the
Discipline of the M. E. Church con-
tans no rule against the domestic slave
trade; that is, it is lawful for private
members of the church to carry on
trade in slaves, such persons as are held
according to the laws of the several
slayelolding states.
A great show of abolition is now made
at the North, in an effort to change the
rule in question, so as to make it read
buying OR selling, instead of buying AND
selling; but this is all cheat, IN the
light Of the construction the official or
gan now puts upon that rule. The
change will effect nothing, if it relates
to the foreign slave trade, and not to the
domestic trade in slaves. Ii it can be
violated only by buying FREE persons,
as the Advocate contends, it does not and
cannot touch the question of slavery as
1t now exists in this country.
There is another point in the same
article, on which we will offer remark.
The Advocate refuses to allow Mr..
Boyd to prove in its columns, that slave
ny is man-stealing, on the ground that it
would be an impeachment of Father
Abraham.
The editor says of Mr.. Boyd's attempt
to prove that slavery is man-stealing,
{ He may try if he pleases, but not in
the Christian Advocate and Journal
We shall not allow him to arraign the
good old patriarch Abraham as man
slealer, or as thief of any other sort,
in our columns
We imagine that more concern is felt
for the characters of southern slave
holders than for Abraham, and to protect
them from the arrows Of truth, they are
sheltered under the wing of the pari-
arch. This is clearly placing southern
Shareholders on level with Abraham of
old, and claiming the example Of the
father of the faithful, in justification Of
American slavery. Mr.. Boyd did not
propose to prove that Abraham was
STAKEHOLDER or a man-stealer, but that
slaveholding, as it exists in America, is
man-stealing; and as the Advocate OBJ
jects to this,on the ground that it would BIO
wrong to arraign Abraham as aman-steal-
er,it follows that Abraham practised slave
ny which involved the same principles
as American slavery. The Advocate
must then condemn Abraham, or justify
American slavery. But the Advocate
has already refused to condemn Abra-
ham, or to lend its columns for that pur-
pose; it must, therefore, justify Ameri-
can slavery. Will any one say, hence
forth, that the official organ of the NJ. f..
Church is not pro-slavery? We blush
for Christianity, when it has such Ad-