Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-04-08

best of our knowledge, not tCetCe men e~XclusiV-
civ devoted to the religious instruction OF the
negroes. As to ministers of their Oon cocor,
they are destitute, infinitely, both in point OF
numbers and qualifications, to say nothing OIL the
fact that such a ministry is looked upon VIII
distrust. and discountenanced. But DO not the
NEGROES have access to the Gospel through the
stated ministry of the whites ! No. We
venture tbe assertion, that if we take the whole
number of ministers in the slaveholdmg States,
but a ycry small portion pay a"y attention to
them. The negroes have no regular and Ell
fcient ministry as a matter OF course, NO
CHURCHES ; neither is there sufficient room III
the white churches for their recommendation
We know of but fUc churches IN the slayehold-
ing States built expressly for their use.
We may now inquire if they ENJOY the privileges
of the Gospel in private, in their own houses, or
on their own plantations ? Again we return a
negative answer. They have NO BIBLES to read
at their own fresides, they have no family affairs;
and, when in affection and sickness, or death,
they have no minister to address to them the con-
solutions of the Gospel, nor to bury them with
solemn and appropriate services"
Certainly the Rev. President of D." Centenary
College, Clinton, Mississippi, " and the Synod of
South Carolina and Georgia, differ somewhat as
to the religious character of t1CO millions of sLdycS.
According to the one, they are regular attend
ants on divine worship according to the other,
they are " in the condition ofHEArHEN," Let us
apply this double doctrine to the case of the
slave Christians of Scuppernong, and see whe-
ther we cannot find some %eSOteric revelations
which might cause the Bishop ofOxford to pause
a little before he asks pardon for his reproof of
the American church.
1t seems that, during Lent, you visited GER
tain plantations " which had been without stat
ed ministerial services for the greater part of the
year. In the midst of this restitution of the
means of grace, you appeared on the ground,
and commemorative 1t appears you had not
time to finish" a new course of oral catechet-
ical instruction to the servants" How far the
servants were permitted to listen to your daily
lectures and services, and whether they enjoyed
oral instruction Oh other days than the Sabbath,
is uncertain, since no mention is made Of the
suspension of labor on the plantations, except
on Good Friday. Howeverth this may be, certain re-
suits are recorded. You saw masters and servants
standing side By side in the holy services of Pas
sion week. Had you seen them sitting together
in the same pews, we could better have under
stood their position, and should have shared
SOul sui ~ lpI Vii OObu L lluuI, Ill SCCildl ldO
or was suspended. This, of course, was not the
effect of the oral instruction to the servants, bu
an act of civility on the part of the masters tl
the Bishop, who had made the visit by particu
lar request. On this day, you saw the " cleanl,
clad multitude thronging the house of prayer, t.
pay homage to a Crucifed Saviour" 1t was fa
easier to see a large gang of slaves standing il
the church, than to see the cause which brough
them there. 1t is not to be supposed that, dur
ing the Bishops visit, the slaves were told t
throw down their hoes, and to put on cleal
clothes, merely to spend Good Friday in dan
cling, or roaming over the plantations. What
ever may have been the piety of the multitude,
they were most unquestionably ordered to 90 t
church, and a sound fogging would have bee
the fate of every truant. On the blessed Easte
morn you beheld " the master with his goodl
number of servants kneeling with r%everent hear
and devout thanksgivings, to take the bread
life, at the same altar" AS no Protestant Epi
copal church has as yet more than one altar
communion table, the COMMITMENTS. as a ma
ter of course, knelt at the same. AS the serviC
was performed by you, it was of course perform
with rubrlcal correctness and, not being inter
rupted with narratives of personal experience
and feelings, it is not very obvious how you mac
the discovery that the gOodly number of serUan
knelt VIII r%everent hearts and devout thank
givingST
You fatter yourself, sir, that if these sigh
had been witnessed by some one of " our bret
rem from other lands" (%probably Northern al
English Abolitionists,) they would have change
their note of walling over imaginary suffcrir
into the jubilant chant, " Happy are the peop
that are in such a case; yea, blessed are the PEI
pie who have the Lord for their Cod I
assured, sir, that unless they very imperfect
understood the subject, no such exclamation
would be prompted by their hearts nor escaT
from their lips. They would not regard as ha
Ply the masters who compelled a goodly numb
of their fellow Christians to toll for them witho
wages and that they might the more easily ket
them in subsection, denied them all the rights
humanity, They would not regard the multtu
of slaves happy, because excused from labor
Good Friday, while toiling under the lash eve
other week day in the year nor, finally. won
they pronounce masters and slaves happy, mcr
ly because they we're seen to receive the col
munion on Easter Sunday.
Most true it is, that he who has the Lord f
his God is blessed, whether he bleeds under Il
lash. of the slave driver, or expires a martyr at Il
stake and equally true is it, that his blessednc
affords no justification to his brother for treatiI
him as a beast of burden, or offering his life
sacrifice to religious intolerance. No Christi
will deny the power ofthe Holy Spirit to pen
rate the gloomy prison house of Southern bon
age, and to enlighten, %sanctify, and save its m
cradle inmates. But the blessings of grace,
of Providence, are ordinarily bestowed in retu
for the use of appointed means and where the
means are withheld, or partially applied,
grossly perverted, other evidence may justly
required, that the slave has made the Lord
God, than the simple fact that he is seen to
ceive the communion in his masters church, a
in his company. 1t is somewhat questional
whether your spirit would have been equally
treshed at the sight of a multitude of Presbyt
ian, Baptist, or Methodist slaves, receiving
communion or whether you would have be
equally assured of their blesscdness. Yet y
we'll know, sir, that in the choice oftheir chul
and creed the slaves are passive and that, !
the Scuppernong communicates been to aucti