Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-10-30
at is a political nneSliOn.n

opposed the Introduction of the slavery cues
ton into the meetings of the Evangelical AL
Iiance.-It is u political question, and there
fore should not be Introduce into a religious
association. 1t is in a certain sense a pulti-
cal question, aud a commercial question, and
a social question, but it is pre-eminently IL
moral, a religious question. The slAvehol-
der 50 regards it, and although he may retreat
behind the slave code for defense, and point
to constitutional guarantees, yet his m.in re
ingc is in the religion of tho day, and he
feels secure SO long as that sanctions his
system of wrong. The religion of the peo-
pie is the polar star to which the magnetic
needle of law, Of commerce, and of social re-.
la,ions ever points. 1t is the foundation
stone upon which rests the entire superstruc-
ture of society, the groat first principle whose
character is enstamprd upon every %ins;itu.
ton.
There il M other feeling In the human
heart So strong as the religious feeling, and
il matters not what is the form OF the deity
i shapes for itself, whether it is the .Juager-
naut Of the Hindoo or the Christians God.
the soul becomes welded to it, and for thai
god and for that Faith it is willing to suffer.
The history Of its power is written upon the
pages Of the Past and Present; it meets us
at every passage Of our walk through life,
and is a portion of the experience Of our own
being. 1t is therefore The part Of wisdom 10
incorporate into the religion of the land that
which you desire shall endure. This the
STAKEHOLDER has done. He has made slavery,
as it were, tne of the stones Of the altar, he
has so interviewer it with The church that an
attempt to destroy the one threatens the des-
~truction Of the other. The veteran abolition
ist has learned by years Of painful and toll
some experience, that the church is the prop.
Tense; its chief bulwark; and that he who
would labor most rffectually to destroy it,
must atlact it in its strong hold, and drug it
even from between the very horns Of the al
tar. He has been made to comprehend that
while the power of the church sits behind
the throne, directing and controlling the agent
it has placed upon it, he should attack that
power which is mightier than the throne
Constitutions guarantees and legal enact
ments cannot aid in sustaining slavery except
the church sanctions and %susiains them /;
therefore is our chief warfare with the church
to reform it, if it can be rrfurmed. to drs-
troy it if it is so corrupt that its dissolution
from slavery will he lis destruction. There
are some who consider the publication Of the
religion Of the people from all faint of slavery
as a matter of secondary importance, and es.
teen political action as the first, if not the
only an'i-Slavery duty, asserting that slavery
being the creature of Law must be abolished
by law. In the preaching and practice Of
such, the Evangelical Alliance and other pro.
slavery religious hodios, find a pretence fol
declaring slavery to be a political question,
and thus justify themselves in denyii u it d
consideration in their meetings. Every thing
that tends to divert the luind from the con.
temptation of slavery as mainly a moral, :
N'Siouo HhOotIOis anu lIOIiI lhB AlltTlcdI
church as the bulwark Of American slavery
strengthens the pro-slavery srcts in their un.
holy position, and gives new confidence t.
those who bapiize the system in The name oil
christianity. There are doubtless many whr
unthinkingly make secession from pro-slaver,
state relations the great test Of anti-slavpry
while they but lightly reg I'D membership il
a pro-Slavery religious body. If christianil,
is higher Than politics, if a low and corrup
standard in the church, is a greater curse t
humanity than a low and corrupt stand ,rd il
the state, then is it evidently our duty to de
vote most of our energies to abolitionize tn,
church, to purify the religion of the land
and 10 preach that gospel which shall brin,
deliverance to the captive, and open the pris
on to them that are bound.