The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-04-25

| AND NoN-FELLOwSHIP oFgTHOSE PRACTlClN
1T THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
No 8.
Again, the objector says
{" believe slavery is sinful, and that the churcl
ought to purify herseff from it but we ant-saver.
men ought to stay in the church, and work to pu
rify ito get the rest of the members right
We answer:
/. Then God did wrong when he commanded
his people TO " come out from corrupt Babylon
that ye be not partakers In her sins, and that W
receive not Of her plsguesn
2 The history of the church shows that God's
policy Of coming out from q corrupt church is
the correct policy to secure q pure church Hence
God called Abraham ont from the idolatrous con-
nection in which be was He did not stay 10 pu-
rify it, Christ and his followers lived in cor
rupt age, and, like the prophets they offered sac
rfce at Jerusalem, because their religion mas then
national one, and there mas but ONE place where men
could otsr mcrifce-.at Jerusalem. The necessity
of CEREMONIAL oBsERvANcEs, mads responsibilities
diGrea from The present. But Christ told the
Samaritan woman, the time was coming when
men could offer sacrifice on that mount every
where. And when this fulness Of time came
the lie Of ceremonial obseypdncts brokeB-we find
Christ taking the Passover with his disciples atone
And from that time onward they were, In all re-
spects separate from the Jewish church. Under
the Gospel, God commands as we have seen, this
policy and in this way only has pure church
been maintained. When in the process Of time
the Christian church became corrupt, pure
church was attained by line Of secessions, reach
ing from the Novatians, A. ID. 25l, TO the Dona-
lists; from the Donatsts to the Paulioians; from
these to the Albigenses and Wilderness from
these TO the great Protestant secession in the
a n 1t. U.... -. Ntn1 IN III
dmv of tM Protestant secession, in obedience TO
the command come out from her, my people 7"
IL the reader does, then he Is bound to 20 back TO
" the mother church "--the Roman Catholic
church, as that church yet claims. Many branches
of the Professionals became corrupt. Wesley at
tempted reformation in the church but bis fol-
lowers saw that duty and correct policy required
them TO come ont, and they did 30 So did the
Independents and the PuritaRs who planted re-
ligion in our own country. And the churches
now, in their turn, as we have seen, having be-
come corrupt--practicing the sins Of mystic Bah
ylon-it is now a duty equally imperative upon
the people of God, to come out.
The opposite policy has been failure For
sixteen hundred years, such men ms Erasmus,
Fenelon, Massilon, and others, have been staying
in the church TO purify 1t. Did they do III
Never They died where they began, amid cor
amidst death struggles, they reflected some beau
tirul rays only TO be covered by tides Of coming
corruption How different the history Of Nova
tian, Donatus, Wicklife, Luther, Zuinglius, Me-
lancthon, and others, who came out with them
They and their churches were beacon-s stars, warn
ing Of danger on the one hand, and directing to
the port OF safety on the other. These churches
came out, chiefly, on account OF immoral prac-
tees in the old churches and hence they were
called even in the days of the Novstisns eaihayi-
puritans.
In our own country, for more than half a CEN
fury, Christians have been talking and preaching
in the church against slavery, and trying to pu-
rify the churches by staying In the churches u
is said that our Methodist brethren, in the begin
ming Of their labors after the Revolution, tasted
and prayed over this subject three days They
came TO the conclusion, in opposition TO the teach
ing Of God, that they would suffer the extortioner
to stay In their communion five years, and that
they would preach against it--purge 1t out by
preaching principles What has been the re-
suit Why, their practice neutrslired their
words, and slavery grew on them every year, IN
ill Mt last II wore out many Of them, and their
principles, too, burst their church asunder planted
itself Ia the dwellings Of thousands OF the mem
bership In both divisions and sealed the lips OF the
ministry. Once II was very common thing 10 hear
Methodist preachers speak against slavery, In
thsir sermons, In the most unspsripg terms Now,
South Of Mason and Dixon's line, there are hun
dreds, perhaps thousands, who will apologize for,
to one who will even mincingly speak against It,
And In the church North, having yet In slave
States some twenty thousand slaves in her clutches
few OF her ministers ever say anything from the
pulpit against the iniquity, and II they DO II Is
TO "hesl slightly the hurt ofmy people" Yes, 80
psralyring have been the consequences Of fellow,
shipping the ioiquity, that even the followers o.
Wesley slumbsr with quiet conscience over the
clspking chains and mapslsd bodies OF the poor