Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-05-31
The Division of the Church.

full of interest and not alone the worldly man does
furnish lesson that should be studied and treasured
The ties of religion next those of blood are more
enduring than any known to civilized life and even
history is full the records Of the lives OF those apos
Ties and patrarchs who have abandoned home with all
its sweet and sacred endearments to escape persecu
ton Thousands upon thousands of instances could
be given proving that the bonds OF fellowship were so
potent between the members of the same faith as to
induce the hazarding of property and life to shield the
victims from persecution death The history OF the
christian church is but living record OF the truth OF
the position we have assumed and history of the
separation of the Methodist Church North and South
would it presented in DETAIL silence those of its
members who fail to in the political action OF their
Northern brethren the spirit of arrogance and
aggression manifested by them in their church policy
and which, thank God for it, there spirit enough
left among the able who directed Southern Church
affairs to resist upon the very Threshold. Has the
Church South repented of its resistance Have the
lay members discovered that the action hasty and
i'll advised or that evil has probably will spring out
of the separation We have never heard either, and
on no occasion have ever heard the act of separa
ton censured but have frequently heared the lntol
and the unchrisan spirit that rendered thesep-
aration necessary, denounced.
And what caused the separation Slavery The
Northern brethren people so pure, so christian, so
sensitvey holy that utilization with brothers who held
slaves darkened their path toward the gates of Para
disc Forgetting in their holy horror that their faith
ers dealers in negroes, that they traf
cked in human flesh and blood, and that thousands of
the negroes who people the Southern States are
the their fathers sold the scons of that stock
Savery-an institution recognized by the Book of Life
an institution that can be traced from the earliest
ages, every where recognized, and when He of whom
the inspired of old prophesed came where discoun-
tenanced or denounced-an institution at
mended not less by its humanizng influences than by
its tendency place indolent and semibarbarous
race within the reach of christian teachng,-such
institutions our brothers could not affiliate wthcon-
tamination in the TOUCH and rather than permit
man who inherited slaves to administer to them the
cred rights of BAPTISM the sacrement they chose to
sever a christian Church. They would not submit to
be ruled by Bishop because he slave own
er. And we will remark here that we never ex-
pect to see true Southern and STAKEHOLDER ee-
waited to the Presidential chair of this Union again
The religious prejudice against slavery at the North
has found its way among the Masses and what at
one time confined to church and particular creed
has ceased to be and now the only way to
it is by State Inconsistencies preaching from
all the pulpts the of slavery must be curtailed
slavery must cease to be
Who is that says the Church erred in her course -
Her affairs in the hands of wise, pure noble men
men whose study has taught them the way to resist
aggression is not to erect platforms that subject
various constructions and upon which no great
tration ofopnon be got because it opens the way
and invites discussion irrelevant points, leaving the
main open to be occupied by the factous, the
ambitious and the traitors. They know that to sub
NIT is to better neither it the way obtain qu
ct. Submission is invitation and their doctrine
well their history shows that they teach not subms
f sion to error wrong. Too well do they know its
baleul and whitening influence and like true men, not
alone to the great and powerful church of which they
MEMBERS but to the State to which their alleg
is due, and the institution of which some are the
direct representative, they resisted the first effort
: the ant-slavery men, We say the church South was
rght-we applauded the spirit that guided and control
r ed the action of our Southern churchmen.
h But who can fail to see in the impudent demand Of
n the North tempered it was attempted to be with
some little show of orbearance and charity, the reck
spirit of the innovator, the pushing propensity
intolerance and that dark and fearful cloud that pre-
the march, and closes over the burnt and
ing path Of fanatcism True to it's instincts it has
cut the bonds of order that for moral influence was
powerful for the suppression of the social antagonists
lie at the very foundations of our system of GOV
eminent 1t has severed ties that will 90 farther to-
wards sundering the fraterna feeling of the two sec
tons than would have heated political strife in fifty
d years.
Will it be said that there were no aggressions-that
the old and reverenced fathers of the Church. not only
their age and pety but for their prudence and
Perience found in the demands of the North
worthy OF separation And yet, with all the lights
before us, with full knowledge of the progress of the
fanatical feeling at the North what it has and will vet
gain from the beray and the timdity of the South
that party claiming nothing but what all admit as lust
right, legal and constitutional is still opposed by
party not denying the justice of the demands but who
: counsel submission to palpable wrong How would
e it have been if the church had submitted! How will
it be if politicians submit now Will aggressions
n cease! No, we answer.
Compare for moment the course of these peaceful
and private christians with the course of some of our
Southern politicans-how superior in duty to them.
selves, to the great and holy trusts with which thew
were charged to that liberty and equality the inherit
ance of our racehow far above the tme-seryng spir
it of these days. do the bearers of the cross tower in
a manly dignity and national patriotism. Like men
they resisted an attempted jurisdiction over subject
entirely Southern On the other hand the politcian
t seeking national name or federal preferment. has
basey, raitorousy bartered rights that the quiet and
paclhc churchman would have shuddered at the men,
ton OF. The South has lost in the settlement of tho