Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1845-12-05
ADDRESS TO THE PROFESSORS OF
CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED
STATES.

Brethren AND SIsTERs:-Being assem-
bled together in this our Annual Meeting, and
being favored to witness, from time TO time,
during our deliberations, the benignand heart
rendering influence of the unbounded love of
God, in an eminent degree covering our as
sembly as with a holy canopy; under the in
fuence thereof, our hearts have been enlarg-
ed towards our fellow-men of every class and
description, with ardent desires for their well
fare and happiness, in time and i'll eternity.
The prosperity and extension of the cause
and kingdom of the Prince of Peace, and the
salvation of a fallen world, were felt to be
objects, for the promotion of which we are
called upon most earnestly, most devoutly,
to labor.
1t is under the influence of these convic-
tons, and in consideration of the responsible
ity that rests upon US, the love OF Christ con-
straining us, that we have felt our minds
drawn to address you, briefly. in the language
of expostulation, calling upon you, as you de-
sire the glory of God, the happiness of your
fellow-men, and the salvation of your W
souls, to give your hearty cooperation In re-
moving from the church, and the world those
CRYING and enormous sins which operate so
powerfully to the prevention of the spread OF
the Kingdom of Christ on earth, aud threaten
our country with the visitation of Divine judg-
ments. Among those sins, We believe 1t our
duty at this time particularly to call your at
tention to war and Slavery, not only on ac-
count of their pre-emlnence III atroclty, but
because their very existence in this age,
and in this country especially, is chargeable
to the professors of Christianity, Individually,
and in their church organizations; by theiI
apathy and indifference in regard to those
..o,t ovilc in manu- inSta mos Inv an active
participation in and open defence of them,
and, in the case of Slavery especially, by the
determined opposition (even of those who
profess to be strongly opposed to the system,
to those peaceful measures for its abolition
which we verify believe, God in his Provi
dence has called into operation, as an offer o
mercy to a guilty nation; and which we as
firmly believe will, if finally rejected by thu
American people, greatly add to their guilt
and consequently TO their punishment, whei
the Divine forbearance shall have been eX
hausted, and the nation shall be called to
fearful reckoning for its sins.
We cannot but believe that if the profess
ed followers of Christ in an individual capac
ity, and in their church organizations, hal
heretofore taken and maintained q firm ant
uncompromising stand against these direfu
sins, the sound of war, the wailings of wild
ows and orphans rendered destitute by tn,
sanguinary conflicts on the field of battle
where the profeSsed Christian sheathes hi
sword in the bowels of his brother-the clan
king of Slavery's hateful chain, the groans q
the bleeding victim writing under the ty
rants lash, the signing ofhusbands and wives
of parents and children, separated forever b.
the ruthless hand of oppression, would nc
new nor henceforward, be heard III our land
but universal liberty, would prevail from on
extremity of our country to the other. An
/ we would impress it upon your minds, tina
there is yet hope for our country. We be
t lieve the unmerited mercy of God is yet eN
a tended toward us, the day of our visitation
yet heightened out a little longer-we there
t fore most earnestly entreat you to use you
/ great influence for the reformation of the na
ton, and the removal of those crying sins
: before mercy shall yield up the sceptre to ir
flexible justice, and the bosom of destructio