Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-11-06
Declaration and Resolution
OF THE SESSION OF THE PRESBY-
TERRAIN CHURCH, AT GREEN
FIELD, OHIO.

TERRAIN CHURCH, AT GREEN
FIELD, OHIO.
The Session Of the Presbyterian Church Of
Greenfield, at an adjourned meeting, held
Aug. Is, 1916, to consider their duty, III re-
lation to the General Assembly and Synod of
Cincinnati, in view of their encouraging the
practice and defense of siaUehOi1iHg, all the
members being present, unanimously adopt
ed the following Declaration and Resolution,
and ordered them to be printed for the Con-
gregation.
The General Assembly of the P~resbyteri-
an Church, and the Synod Of Cincinnati,
continue to be composed, in part, of those
who hold, and, by their example, persuade
others to hold, their fellow-men as slaves,
under a system which declares them to be
mere ''chattels personal in the hands of their
owners under a system which strips one
eighth of the population of these States of
those personal and inalienablo rights which
God has given TO every human being; a sys-
TEN which robs them Of all the fruits of their
labors, excepting so much as may be ncccs-
Sary to enable them to endure oppression F.; a
system which interfereS with all the divine
Iy constitu j relations, and sunders the
strongest and tendurest t S, whenever the CO.
vetousness of the master may demand it a
system which forbids the discharge of any
and every duty which they owe to God and
man, excepting so far as u tellow-worm may
please to grant indulgence a system which
substitutes a filthy state of concubinige for
marriage, and c%onpels females to submit to
the demands of unprincipled white men; a
system which, in disregard of the life of their
souls, takes from them the Word of God, and
substitutes Orul instruction, and such oral in
s~truction only as their drivers may consider
favorable to the safety and perpetuity of their
cnslavement.
The sins which constitute the slavehold-
er's crime, to wit-coretOuane ness and criOrtiOn,
Cor, taking by force that which is another's,)
were considered, in the Apostolic churches,
so r~epugnant to the Christian character, that
the Apostle speaks of it as well known fact,
and as Il matter of course, that Christians
who had been guilty of them, had repented,
and fled to Jesus Christ for ~pardon-such
,cere some Of you, but ye are tCdShed, Gut ye
are sanctyfed, but &c ate justified an the name
Of The Lard Jesus, anil By tie Spirit IF our
God. He classes these sins with the most
scandalous breaches of Gods law, and de-
clares that those who live in them shall nat
inherit the kingdom Of God. He records it as
the standing Injunction of Heaven for all ge-
nerations-''not to keep company, if any man
that is called a brother be a fornicator, or CO.
retOus, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunk
ard, or an eriDrtiOner with such a one no
not to eat.'-Pidc Isl Cor. &: Gil, and {:
IL.
We have no disposition TO leave the Church
of God. God forbid But, whether it be a
duty to withdraw fellowship from those who,
after years of expo situation, wtU perserere in
practising or defending so gross a sin as
slaveholding, and the abominations Insepa-
rAble from it, is a question settled by the eX-
ample of our Lord, and his Fore-runner, and
his Disciples. They did not leave the Church
OF God. But, by baptism they drew the line
between those who repented, and those who,
in addition to other sins, held on in making
Gods house of prayer a den Of There's. BE-
You'd that line, they held no communion
which would imply a recognition OF them as
obedient children of God-no communion
which was not common to all who were GER
emonially clean enough to enter the courts of
Gods house. Our Savior urged his disci-
pies to evince their faith and obedience to
him by pursuing this course, even at the haz-
ard of being deprived of the privilege of hear
ing the Scriptures publicly read in the Syn
agogue on the Sabbath day, and of being de-
prived of all the privileges, civil or religious,
the loss of which is implied in being put out
Of the Synagogue.
The General Assembly has put the eXtin.
ruisher on the hope of seeing the Presbyteri-
an Church purified from this iniquitous sys-
TEN, by the exercise of discipline and, with
out discipline, the Church never was, and
never will be, purified from any gross sin oil
long standing. They refuse to rebuke those
ministers and theological professors who
prostitute the word of God to the defense Of
slave-holding, and even those five ways Of
slave-making, (by birth, captivity, &c.,) SC
revolving to common sense and common de-
cency, that they never were tolerated without
Limitation, even by pagans on the coast OF Al
RIGA. The Assembly declare, that I" neither
the Scriptures nor our Constitution authorize
them to present any particular course to b'
pursued by the churches under their care, fol
removing the evils OF slavery" that ''slave
holders were admitted to membership in tn
churches organized by the Apostles )" tina
.Christ and his Apostles did not make slave
holding a bar to communion . that they, "a'
a court of Christ, have no authority to do it,
and that, to exercise discipline for this sin
would be Inconsistent with the conceded prin
chile, on which the Assembly was original
ly organized, and would be virtually dlssol
wing itself.
They have more recently furnished add
tional proof, if any were wanting, that hop
of any speedy change Of sentiment or pur
pose respecting lilS CIy lnS lNiI"l'y' 10 uO'u
siye.
They have required the churches, in thei
future statistical tables, to exhibit, in a col
umn separate from that Of the whites, til
number of pious slaves. 1t is difficult to con
ceiye what could be the design; but the prob
able effect is obvious. Such tables VIII b
neither more nor less than a shameless proc
lamation of the extent 10 which the PreSOy
terian Church is engaged, in holding tn
members Of the Savior's body in the cond
ton of :. chatels personal" 1t will help
confirm every inidel, who has iatclligene
enough to know that religion, to be Wort